"So what makes ya so damn sure ya can add more people to yer simulations once we clear the fiftieth floor anyway?" Mel asked as I took a bite of a roast potato. Most of the last thirty minutes had been spent with him, Elody, and Karlinovo scanning me in various ways to make sure my body was doing okay.

"I could be entirely wrong, but the name of the quest is Squad Training," I replied. In truth, I wasn't actually at all sure that was how it would work, but I figured making Mel salivate at the idea was worth the claim.

"Hope ya ain't, that could be a real power boost for us," Mel said as Trolke, Glorp, and Glunderlin joined us.

"How's the progress going today on the buildings?" I asked. With how my day had been so far, other than what I could see from a distance, I hadn't had a chance to actually check the details on it.

"The Reltleons are doing well at collecting the materials needed, and with some of what they brought with them, we will be able to add in more comforts easier than I expected," Trolke answered as one of the newer additions to the kitchen handed him a large bowl that looked like some kind of stew.

"Hey, any chance I could get a bowl of that too?" I asked, flagging down the Reltleon before she vanished back to the kitchen. She gave a nod and a smile back. "So what kind of additions are we looking at?"

"Well, our people try to hold onto everything we manage to collect, which is part of why our forced evacuation was going to be so hard on the residents of the city before you showed up. It wasn't feasible to take it all. But to the point that means we have a lot of smaller magical trinkets that most factions wouldn't bother to keep around. Little items that heat or cool small areas, or add lights. Things that are often useless in worlds with a heavy magic flow," Glunderlin answered.

"And with how weak our flow is, these items are suddenly incredibly useful. That makes a lot of sense." Glunderlin nodded along to my words in between bites of a bread that had just been given to him.

"Wait, do you have any mana-type diffusers?" Karlinovo asked, a look of deep interest on his face.

"Yes, would they be of use to you?" Glunderlin answered with the smile he did whenever he found something to pay us back with.

"Maybe, probably. I'll have to work on it, but I think if we can get the mana batteries working correctly with the lines I want to put in place, we might be able to strengthen the mana flow at certain locations, possibly even change the type in beneficial ways," Karlinovo answered.

"Let's make that a priority. Glunderlin, get Ivan any of the diffusers you can, first thing tomorrow. This also brings us to the big point of tonight's meeting. We need to add some work to the construction plans for our own future planning and defense of the city. We can assume that if we are the only city on the planet with strong magic for the time being that the city will slowly swell in size, so the more we can work out now the better," Pryte replied, after downing a glass of something that smelled strongly of lavender, despite being dark green.

"Well, I already had the plans for underground structures, and with your primary water source being the single well, we will need to work on that soon. What else are you thinking?" Trolke asked.

"I want utility tunnels. Let's start with making sure they run the entire perimeter of the initial city, and also connect into every building we have," I answered as my own dinner was slid in front of me. It smelled great, and I let others take over the conversation while I ate more.

"Yes, we will need those. I need to run a lot of cabling, and the availability of materials that handle mana charges is limited on this planet at the moment. That means we will need to increase the amount of wiring and the heat distribution in order to power the end relays." Karlinovo pulled out a pad of paper from a pocket as he spoke and started scribbling away on it.

"Let's also assume we may need to move heavy equipment around without prying eyes. So in that case, why don't we make a large network of tunnels for people and equipment that run alongside the utility tunnels?" Pryte had walked up to one of the larger whiteboards and started writing down notes.

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"We should assume that at some point, this city is gonna come under attack. If we work the shelters in now, it'll make our lives a ton easier," Mel added. I hadn't fully considered that, despite Karlinovo's defense plans. The idea that we would actually need to fight against invaders, while likely entirely true, was a new concept, and not one I liked.

"All of this building is either going to take an extremely long time, or we are going to need to start training up more of the Reltleons. That would be easiest if you could get hold of a few of the specialist classes." After he finished his suggestion, Trolke burped loudly and quickly apologized while his face turned red.

"Damn, back to the problem of needing more funds," Pryte muttered. Despite his attitude on the matter, he still wrote the need for the classes on the list.

"If we're all going tower climbing anyway, why not do some betting?" Yorela had a giant grin that nearly matched the tone of her question.

"Not the worst idea, but after what Dave pulled on that last floor, the odds are gonna be skewed in our favor. So it ain't gonna be any giant payday," Mel added as he placed several class orbs onto the table in front of us.

"More of your secret stash from the Archives, I assume?" Elody asked as her top eyes swiveled to focus on the orbs.

"Yeah, a few things from a life I ain't ever gonna see again. Most of these won't be any use ta what we need, but the elemental orb is already set fer water, that'll help with getting wells ready to go," Mel replied. This time his color changed rapidly first to a dark blue, then purple, and finally back to his green color. The last shift accompanied a resolved look on his face I wasn't sure I had seen before.

"I'm not sure most of those class orbs will help much with our current needs, but that Tunnel Warrior class could be used as a workaround," Elody said, after finally moving her top set of eyes back down to her plate.

"Yeah, kinda figured that, might be able ta use the Smasher class too. Just gotta make sure whoever we give 'em to understands how ta manipulate a class against what it was designed fer," Mel replied.

"I have two people that I think would benefit well from them. They are still teenagers, but had things continued the way they were, the plan was to try and raise the funds to send them somewhere they could actually learn and grow," Glunderlin said, with a look of pride on his face.

"Oh, I can't believe I didn't think of that. We need a school!" I shouted the last part louder than I expected, but that being yet another thing that hadn't occurred to me yet, was somewhat mind-shattering for me. It was one of those incredibly obvious things that somehow just slipped by.

"It's almost certainly a good idea, but keep in mind universal education isn't a common thing in the Spiral. I know it's pretty normal here on Earth, and some other planets, but most factions only bother to educate their prodigies or their wealthy," Pryte said. I already knew that from most of what I had learned. It was one of the many things I found deeply offensive about the way many factions functioned. How could you even really know someone's capabilities until they had a base level of knowledge to prove themselves? Glorp was a great example of that.

"We'll have to design a curriculum, strangely, we likely have the right people here to cover all the subjects, though I am unsure how good of an idea it will be to let Ivan teach mana theory." The slight smirk on Elody's face gave away the joke behind her words. That was another thing I was pretty sure I wouldn't have been able to notice before.

"I can work on planning this one out. Other than working with Sanquar on the diary, I don't really have much to do, and I'd like to be more involved," Alex chimed in for the first time during the meal.

"Works for me, but I recommend listening to any suggestions Pryte has. He's the only reason any of this works," I replied with a smile, glad she had found something she wanted to join in with, and could handle with the pregnancy. I knew she really wanted to be out there with Trolke and Glorp, but that would have to wait until after the baby.

"Will do, Glunderlin, you and I are sitting down tomorrow. I want a list of all people you'd consider not to be adults." Alex's words were far more of an order than they were a request.

"Yes, yes, absolutely," the mayor replied, a stunned look on his face.

"There's still the issue of funds if we want to get more classes, especially if we are now discussing training people directly," Pryte said, dampening some of the energy of the earlier idea.

"Maybe I'm missing something here, I am, after all, very new to your gatherings, but why not go dungeon raiding? With Dave's unique talents, I'm sure there are many smaller factions that would be glad to have you take care of their problems for them," Glunderlin suggested.

"Nah, ya ain't, well other than a way ta get ta the worlds, but we got a plan fer that already. Honestly, prolly a great idea that we can even incorporate into training. Keep thinking like that, Glunderlin, we clearly don't have all these answers," Mel said.

There are many varieties of the Paladin class, but one of the commonalities between them is the ability to incorporate class orbs that would fall under the purview of their order. This makes Paladin classes extremely versatile in their capabilities, but it can also cause them to branch further than they are able to easily handle. This means an older Paladin is a force to be reckoned with.

The Paladin Classes by Zolinar

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